I think Emmylou's ready for the Olympics to start and I think I know which event she's looking most forward to:







Even though she got her ribbon-stick-thing a while ago, she just unearthed it recently and has spent a lot of time cavorting around the house with it. I crack up every time I see her because all I can think about is Will Ferrell's rhythmic gymnastics routine in Old School.

On Tuesday morning Emmylou and I babysat for my friend Meghan's 4 month old son, Cole. I figured it would be good practice for us since we'll have a baby boy of our own in a little more than six weeks. Emmylou was great for most of the time, except that whenever he was fussy and I picked him up she'd point at him and say "No! My mommy!" Also, by the end of the two hours that we had him, she had picked up this playmat and relocated it to her bedroom so he couldn't use it. So jealous!

Playing together nicely...


And a little too big for the playmat (but it is still "mine!")...

There's a new season of Project Runway starting this Wednesday!

Anyone interested in joining our league?

Here's the link to our group:

We Heart Tim and Heidi

The cast hasn't been posted yet on Fafarazzi, so keep checking back so you can be sure to pick your team before the premiere on Wednesday.

I'll also be updating the site for our league which you can also find using the link on the left of this page.

Aside from our little car accident Sunday night (which we've since learned will cost USAA [gasp!] a whopping $7000 in repairs) we had a couple other small misfortunes that evening...

First, let me introduce you all to Daisy #2:



She was acquired today while Emmylou was in Spanish class. So far she suspects nothing although this fish is at least 50% bigger than the last Daisy.


Second, when we left New Braunfels the night of the accident, we happened to leave the love of Emmylou's life, her Ugly Doll Babo (pronounced BAH-boh), at PawPaw and Nana's house. This shouldn't be a big deal since we have a back-up Babo at home, except that Emmylou can tell the difference between them by glancing at one or the other for approximately .02 seconds. In fact, she calls her back-up Babo "Babo #2."

We broke the news to her in a matter-of-fact way on the drive home: "Emmylou, we left Babo #1 at PawPaw and Nana's house so you'll have to sleep with Babo #2 tonight." She seemed a little distressed but there were no tears, mostly because she was too busy watching The Wonder Pets.

Once we got home I got her into bed somewhat easily with Babo #2 after explaining that we'd get Babo #1 back the next day and then I took off for the hospital. When I got home and asked Gary how she went down, he said that after a few minutes in her bed, she started screaming "Babo One!!!" over and over. Eventually she went to sleep.

Since some of you babysit for us and might encounter having to deal with Babo #1 and Babo #2, I thought I might try to help by illustrating some of the significant differences between them:

Exhibit A: Babo #1

Note Babo #1's large teeth and the worn tag he possesses on his left side. His mouth, which came off ages ago, was originally sewn on, thus leaving a few widely-spaced black stitches in its place. Also, displays significantly matted "fur" and is usually significantly flatter than Babo #2.

Exhibit B: Babo #2

Note Babo #2's slightly larger eyes and smaller, more closely-set teeth. He was purchased at least six months after the first, clearly after the Ugly Doll people switched to using more efficient methods for mass production, including gluing on the mouth (which I ripped off a long time ago the first time we misplaced Babo #1 and tried to get him to pass for him). He also has a slightly pointier body and fuzzier "fur."

And what could be better than one or the other? Why, both, of course!



A big thanks to PawPaw and Nana for meeting us Monday evening in San Marcos for a Babo #1 hand-off. Emmylou was thrilled to see him again and when we got home, her other Ugly Dolls were all eagerly awaiting the reunion as well...

Our Fourth of July weekend was so much fun (except for Sunday evening but I'll get to that in a second)!

We went to Grammie's for a weekend of swimming, fireworks and Wimbledon-watching.

On the Fourth, we had a nice sized group over for a yummy all-American feast:





Gary had bought some "age-appropriate" fireworks for Emmylou and Amelia and could NOT wait to get to them (notice how there are no photos of fireworks being ignited in the dark). Here they are with some poppers that shoot streamers and lighting sparklers...







Emmylou wasn't too sure about the sparklers being so close...



And someone else was a little scared of them and hiding...



The firework grand finale included a few disappointing turtle fireworks that were supposed to shoot fire out of their butts to make them crawl across the street and this oh-so-glorious spectacle of a fountain...



To end the day, Emmylou and Grammie put on their Statue of Liberty hats and watched The Wonder Pets: Save the Pigeon, set on the nose of the Statue of Liberty.



On Sunday morning, Emmylou woke up and the first thing she said in the sleepiest, sweetest voice was, "It was a fun day. Turtle shoot fireworks out his butt."

We watched the marathon Federer-Nadal Wimbledon final the rest of the day so Emmylou started with a bowl of strawberries and cream (natch).





So... the only bummer of the weekend was that on our way out of town Sunday evening we stopped to visit with PawPaw and Nana and while going back to their house after dinner out, we rear-ended them! It wasn't a bad wreck, but bad enough to lose the front half of our bumper and headlight and we had to pull some metal back away from the wheel so we could drive our car home. Their car wasn't damaged as badly. We finally made it home around 9:30 and I decided to call my doctor since you're supposed to report even minor fender benders to them. I thought at the very most they'd make me go to the ER for a quick ultrasound to make sure nothing ruptured or dislodged from the jolt of the accident, but the doctor on call made me go to the hospital's labor and delivery unit for 4 hours of fetal monitoring and blood tests! Everything was completely fine as they expected and I'm glad that I got checked out, but I didn't get home until 3:30 in the morning!

Anyway, all is fine now, our car's in the shop and we have a rental for the month it'll probably take to get fixed. Emmylou keeps talking about "my broken car" and says she likes her "brand new car." We'll have to see how attached she gets to our sweet new Dodge Avenger. Awesome.